Last Week’s Food Recap and an unhealthy girl’s guide to being less unhealthy

A big apology in advance for completely copying HayGirlHay’s weekly food listing concept! There are REASONS (see below) and after all, isn’t imitation the best form of flattery? Meanwhile, if you want awesome recipe ideas, I completely recommend checking out Steph’s blog. I mean, for all 2 of you that don’t already.

Now on to my REASONS. There’s really just one. Me trying to live a healthier, happier, AND SEXIER life (there I said it). I’ve tried every diet in existence and the only thing that works for me is counting calories in order to (re)learn how to eat in moderation. In college that meant really cutting back on everything. After gaining the freshman 15 + another 10 pounds or so, I slimmed down again by subsisting on 2 bagels with fat-free cream cheese a day. It worked but it definitely wasn’t healthy.

Getting married after working for 2 years (i.e. the point in my life where I developed the worst habits about my health ever) meant trying to drop 25 pounds back down to my college weight. I made it down 15 pounds by the big day living on lean cuisine for lunch and dinner. I was miserable. And probably packed with unhealthy preservatives. And the sodium. Oh the sodium.

This year, tired with always being embarrassed by how I look, I went back to tracking my calories again. This time with MyFitnessPal (come be my friend, people). Side tangent, but I love love love MyFitnessPal. Back in 2000 when I was counting calories I used a composition notebook to track what I ate. This is much better.

Anyway, the big change for me from 2000 (and 2006) is that this time I’m working on eating well-rounded meals that I’m preparing, at the proper portion size. The first week I was frustrated beyond belief. How on earth do people only eat 1200 calories a day? By week 2 I got it. 200 calories for an afternoon snack goes a long way when you are using it on celery and carrots and not on 2 girl scout cookies. BUT, this weekend I feel I really fell off the Diet 2013 wagon. So I’m hoping that by posting a weekly food recap of all that I cooked during the week I will get back on track, and stay there!

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup – The recipe and the Jerusalem Artichokes both came from my winter CSA box. It called for 2 lbs of Jerusalem Artichokes, peeled and chopped. I’m not sure if you’ve ever peeled and cut one of those bad boys before, but it sucks. Which is why I had Ryan do it. He picked all the big pieces which made it to about half a pound before throwing in the towel. So I started on the rest and made it through 1 before quitting and substituting it for whatever else I had in my kitchen, in this case about half a pound of fingerling potatoes and a pound of parsnips. But other than that the fact that I wouldn’t recommend using Jerusalem Artichokes in the Jerusalem Artichoke Soup recipe, the soup was delicious! (Serving Size: 1 C; Cal: 129; Carbs: 23; Fat: 3; Protein: 3)

Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp – I made this for Christmas 2011 remembered it being easy to make and a huge success back then. And it was again. The only problem is that it called for deveined shrimp with shells still on and both back in 2011 and this past weekend I hunted for that to no avail and ended up with deveined and peeled shrimp. But that just makes it easier and less messy for the eater, so it may be a win in disguise. (Serving Size: 1 Large Shrimp; Cal: 39; Carbs: 0; Fat: 3; Protein: 3)

Coconut Thai Soup – I had the most amazing Coconut Thai soup on our cruise this past December and have been dreaming of having it again ever since so when this recipe popped up on pinterest a couple days ago, I was sold. And it truly was very simple to make and incredibly tasty. I couldn’t find lemongrass stalks so I used the ground/ powder version and I threw in the left over shrimp from the Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp recipe instead of cooking them from scratch. (Serving Size: 1 C; Cal: 173; Carbs: 7; Fat: 10; Protein: 13)

Honey Ginger Pork Chop – Here’s another recipe I found via pinterest except that some pinner (is that what they are called?) had wrote, “instead of grilling it on the stove, bake at 350 for 35 minutes.” This last part was a great idea but 35 minutes turned out to be too long and the chops were overcooked (I never learn to test my meats throughout cooking and go with the set it and forget it stance…. Which doesn’t always work.) (Serving Size: 1 boneless pork chop about 0.44 lbs; Cal: 298; Carbs: 38; Fat: 3; Protein: 28)

Sour Cream Enchiladas – This clearly was a week of Pioneer Woman love. The only think I balked at was frying my tortillas before cooking them as it didn’t mess with operation: get skinny in 2013. So I heated them on the grill with some of that fake butter spray that’s 0 calories. The only problem was that it was a little harder to work with since it wasn’t fried, but I would definitely do it again the same way if I made this dish again. I also must have over stuffed the tortillas because the recipe called for 12 tortillas and I was done with my mixture after 7. But then I didn’t need any extra sour cream to go on top of the enchiladas when everything was all said and done. Ryan was nice enough to wrap up all of the individual enchiladas for me in parchment paper and foil and throw them in the freezer for a quick dinner at work. Which came out amazingly well. (Serving Size: 1 enchilada; Cal: 491; Carbs: 45; Fat: 25; Protein: 21)

As you can see, none of these are diet foods per se, but I know that if I limited myself to just a plate full of unsauced chicken and grilled veggies, I’d fail in less than a week. By making normal dishes healthier and learning what a true serving size is, I’m not desperate to quit yet!